FIG. 1 shows a basic packaging concept for a high power CO2 slab laser system 100. The laser system 100 includes three basic system sub-assemblies: a solid-state high power RF supply box 102, a RF impedance matching network box 104 that contains the components required to match the output impedance of the RF power supply 102 to the input impedance of the laser discharge, and a hermetically sealed CO2 laser tube housing box 106 that contains the laser tube housing that contains the laser's gas mixture, electrodes and the optical resonator. To prevent stray RF radiation from leaking into the atmosphere and causing electromagnetic (EM) interferences, all three sub-assembly boxes 102, 104 and 106 are enclosed in grounded metal enclosures and their input and output ports are all heavily shielded. To prevent overheating, all three sub-assemblies 102, 104 and 106 are also provided with liquid cooling.
As shown in FIG. 1, DC power 108, typically at 48 volts, is provided to the RF supply box 102. An input command signal port 110 is also provided to enable a system operator to provide turn-on/turn-off pulsing instructions to the RF power supply box 102. The power supply box 102 may also contain diagnostic circuitry (not shown in FIG. 1) to report the status 112 of the system 100 to an operator.
From a laser efficiency and cost viewpoint, it is desirable to locate all three sub-assemblies 102, 104 and 106 as close together as possible to eliminate RF losses and costs associated with long co-axial cables.
Co-pending and commonly assigned U.S. application Ser. No. 11/711,192, filed on Apr. 27, 2007, by Howard Knickerbocker and Frederick Hauer, and titled “Power Combiner”, discloses subject matter contained in the RF power supply box 102 shown in FIG. 1 hereof. application Ser. No. 11/711,192 is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety to provide background information regarding the present invention.
Co-pending and commonly assigned U.S. application Ser. No. 12/069,939, filed on Feb. 14, 2008, by Shackleton, Hennessey, Seguin and Hauer, and titled “High Power Low Inductance RF Hermetic Sealed Feed-Through for Slab CO2 Lasers”, discloses subject matter associated with the low inductance hermetic sealed feed-through contained in the network matching box 104 of FIG. 1 for making RF contact to the center of the lengths of the two discharge electrodes within the laser tube housing box 106. application Ser. No. 12/069,939 is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety to provide background information regarding the present invention.
U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/902,974, filed on Feb. 23, 2007, by Shackleton, Newman, Kiehne and Hua, and titled “Confined RF Discharge in CO2 Laser with Hybrid Slab/Wave-Guide Unstable Resonators” discloses subject matter contained within the electrode assembly of the laser tube housing 106 of FIG. 1 which improves laser output beam pointing stability.